David Allen amps built for harp?

[hdawg]

Has anyone played harp through one of David Allen's amps? Seems a couple of them would make nice harp amps, perhaps with a couple of tweaks (I'm thinking about the Accomplice or Accomplice Jr, or the Brown Sugar). But David is not aware of anyone building a kit specifically for harp. Comments, opinions?
Thx. Howard

[angerboy]

That's weird. I asked him that same question. The Brown Sugar w/ 1x15 or 2x10 looked interesting at $999.

[hdawg]

David Allen amps for harp?

I think what David was saying is that he hasn't been asked to tweak one of his kits for harp. Of course, his chief market is guitarists; he doesn't really have to deal with those of us afflicted with harp gear OCD if he doesn't want to :-) But yeah, I'd be kinda surprised if no one has adapted one of his kits for harp.

The reason I ask is that a harp-playing friend is coming into some cash fairly soon from an estate, and he wants me to build him an amp. I've been eyeing Allen's website for some time; it'd be fun to build one of those amps I'm sure, but I would like to have some sense of how close I could get with the stock build. Of course, there's Bruce Collins too, and he has always been tolerant of us harp players ;-) (I'm fascinated by his description of the possible (?) next generation 5F2H in the thread below... I have a 5F2H and it's a killer harp amp).
Howard

[angerboy]

The reason I asked him was because the quality of his stuff seems really nice. I've heard some of my guitar playing buddies use his amps (mostly Old Flames). They sound good.

With the price of vintage blackface and tweed amps approaching outer space, his kits seem like a really good deal.

The Brown Sugar and the Princeton-based ones (Hot Fudge and V-18) were of interest to me.

I need a bigger amp than my 5F1. Weber announced the 5F2H was a few days after I received my 5F1. I wanted to do the 5E3H, but the dates keep getting pushed out, so I'm looking elsewhere.

[hdawg]

Brown Sugar looks great for harp

I agree... reverb, brownface tone stack, cathode-biased 2 x 6L6 or 6V6, the Brown Sugar ought to be a great harp amp, and that'd be my first choice among them, but my friend doesn't need something that big. The Accomplice Jr. 1 x 10 looks like a hefty Princeton Reverb or mini DR with the addition of a master volume, which appeals to me. I used to own a Spirit Harp Pro (remember those?), which had a master volume that worked well. Ultimately it was just a bit too small.

You might want to consider a 5F4/5E5/5E7 as well.

Howard

[angerboy]

Personally, I'd steer clear of harp amps with a master volume. If it an amp for use at home, why not do a 5F1. They are great little harp amps. I bought a kit from Mike Marsh. It was a breeze to assemble. I used a Weber Alnico Signature 8. It sounds great. I've used it as blues jams, too. It's a loud 5 or 6W.

According to their website, the Sweet Spot/V-18 is a modified blackface Princeton Reverb and the Hot Fudge is a brownface Princeton. I've played through several Princetons and the sound is great.

I may do a tweed Pro or Super. My current debate is 1x15 or 2x10.

[hdawg]

Master volume for harp

What I liked about it was not necessarily being able to turn down the volume or whatever, but that you could dial in preamp gain to your taste and then turn the volume up using the master. If you wanted cleaner you could do that; if you wanted more compression you'd raise the preamp gain. The Spirit Harp Pro also had a sort of "raw" switch (not what it was called) that I think took the NFB out... again, more a matter of shaping tone than of fiddling with volume levels.

But not an essential feature ultimately, at least for me. I do like the tweed sound and my next build will be a 5F4 (soon, soon! I'm promising myself).

[MWJB]

I agree with hdawg, in a 5F6a style preamp a 2 input Marshall style master can be very useful, especially for filling in the gaps where one preamp tube configuration gives too much gain, and the next lowest gives tooo little. This kind of master can also be completely switched out of the circuit (use a 1meg audio SPST pot, when disconnected from ground and the pot is full up it doesn't influence the circuit at all) .

The Ken Fischer style Post PI (variable grid return resistor) is not that useful for harp.